


The Red Paladin

by LittleGemstone



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aro Ace Pidge, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gay Keith, Healthy Polyamory, Keith is a nervous baby, M/M, More Galra-y raised-by-Galra Keith au, Mutual Pining, Trans Girl Pidge, and Keith is gonna be awkward and inexperienced about love as an emotion, atm I'm thinking, because I am a smol ace who does not want to deal with that nonsense, bi lance, but not like graphic, but that might change, flangst, goddamn it canon for canonising a bloody au, how far can I project onto these characters?, keith has some un-dealt-with problems, let's see., pan ace hunk, the angst will mostly be familial, the following headcanons are in effect:, the last one isn't really in the fic at all. But it is part of this fic's canon. So there's that., there is a very (very) high chance of zero smut ever, there might be a bit of violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2018-08-29 11:53:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8488303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleGemstone/pseuds/LittleGemstone
Summary: Keith is the son of Thace, a commander under Sendak, but he's always been very different to other Galra. So when a human shows up claiming to be a 'paladin of voltron' whatever that is,  and trying to steal the only spaceship that Keith can actually fly; why shouldn't Keith escape with him?





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> So, um, hi?  
> This is my first fanfic, so I hope it's not too bad.  
> It's based off [this](http://mapurl.tumblr.com/post/148040129718/can-someone-who-is-actually-good-at-writing-go) comic, because I love that thing.  
> Also, I'd like to thank my lovely beta reader, @khidah

The story starts with a young Galra named Keith.

Keith was different. Cliche but true. He was far shorter than the other Galra, ears smaller too, and he had never really understood the whole insane bloodlust thing. Rumours flew of course, as the son of one of the of the officers, it would have been mildly insulting if there wasn't even a banal rumour about Keith.  
However the rumours surrounding Thace's son were a little more serious, and held a litre or so more water.  
The rumours started when Keith was just a baby. Officer Thace had taken one of the human prisoners from Earth and used her as a maid and married another Galra, Kiara, at about the same time. About nine months later, Keith was born and the human was assigned to be his nursemaid, but was then sent away when she seemed to be getting too close to the young Keith. So the rumours started to fly. That Thace had cheated on his wife. That the child was actually the human's, not Kiara's. That the child was part of some mysterious plot. That the child belonged on a planet called Earth. And as Keith grew, the rumours gained more credence.  
Keith was undeniably different. Everyone could see it. But no one could publicly accuse an officer of such a thing, so the rumours were whispered, and nothing happened. Keith learnt how to fight, he got older, he heard the whispers about a planet called Earth, he learned how to fight better, he joined the army, but he never really made any friends.

And so the story begins.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------  
Lance was pissed off. But he was also a little terrified. Being on a giant spaceship filled with your worst enemies will do that to you.  
He looked back up at the impassive face of the red lion, sitting there behind the force field. His teammates voices flashed through his memory.  
"You're the most impulsive."  
"You're creative, I'm sure you'll figure out something."  
"The rest of us have other jobs we have to do to get you in there, we can't go in as well."  
"We have faith in you."  
"Good luck."  
Ha. Fat lot of good that did Lance now, alone without even his lion to back him up. The red lion wasn't letting him in. Despite Allura's claims that she would realise that Lance would reunite her with the rest of Voltron. So here he was. Yelling at a big red robot.  
"Hey! I am the blue paladin! I will take you to Voltron! Just let me in!"  
Nothing. Just. Nothing for a minute or so. Lance sighed, tilting his head forward. He straightened up and felt cold metal against the back of his head. He froze. A slightly gruff voice spoke behind him.  
"Put your hands in the air."  
Lance slowly raised his hands.  
"Ok. Start talking. Who are you? Is there anyone with you? And what are you doing?"  
Lance opened his mouth and tried to keep a tremor out of his voice.  
"Listen, Galra, because I'm only going to say this once."  
Lance took a breath in. The barrel of what could safely be assumed to be a blaster was pressed against the back of his neck, but he could feel that it was on an angle. Strange. That meant the Galra was shorter than him which, quite simply, shouldn't be the case. But Lance couldn't ponder that now. On the exhale, Lance spun, bringing his hands to pull the blaster away.  
Surprisingly, it worked, and Lance was left holding a blaster and facing a short Galra. Lance blinked, then pulled out his bayard, dropping the blaster to the floor as he did so.  
"The name's Lance, and I am a paladin of Voltron, defender of the Universe and protector of Earth, and we are here to take the red lion away from the hands of Galra like you."  
A beat of silence passed. Then the Galra spoke.  
"Did...did you say Earth?"  
The Galra glanced into the corridor behind him.  
"I...I'll...help you."  
"Excuse me, what?"  
The Galra took off his helmet and nervously ran a hand through long purple hair.  
"I'll help you steal the red lion."  
He walked over to the barrier.  
"On one condition."  
He knocked twice.  
"Take me with you." He said as the force field dissolved.  
Lance's jaw hit the floor. All that came out was a strangled sound of disbelief. The Galra looked concerned.  
"Lance? Are you ok?"  
Lance squeaked at him.  
"You! You're the red paladin! But you're Galra! But you're the red paladin! But-"  
The Galra cut him off.  
"Lance, I don't know about this 'red paladin' stuff, quite frankly I don't even know what it means. I'm just Keith. And I'm giving you a way out, if you take me with you."  
Lance took a few deep breaths. He needed to think rationally. He needed to take this 'Keith', get in the lion and get back to the castle. Allura would have answers. Hopefully.  
"Ok, Keith, I am going to take you up on your offer. I presume you can fly the lion?"  
Keith appeared offended.  
"Well of course I can, my father was very insistent that I fly with her as much as possible."  
Lance picked up the discarded blaster and grabbed hold of Keith's arm.  
"In a move I may regret later, I'm giving you back your blaster. Now come on, I'll tell you where to fly her."

 

Lance stood next to Keith as he directed the lion to open the external doors to the chamber and blast the two sentries on the way out.  
Lance had to admit as Keith expertly dodged the blasts from two fighter ships and neatly shot them down, the Galra really did know his stuff and clearly had a strong bond with his lion. Despite the whole Galra thing. He was brought back to reality by Keith clearing his throat.  
"So, where are we going Lance?"  
Lance gestured to the castle as it came into view.  
"Head for that ship, that's the base for Voltron. Allura will know what to do, she's basically our leader. Which reminds me. I really should update her. I'll be right back."  
Keith was left to follow Lance's instructions as he stalked off into the back of the lion before talking into his communicator.  
"Hey, guys?"  
"Lance! Are you on the red lion? Did it give you any trouble?" Allura's voice came from the communicator.  
"Yeah, no, sort of? That's the thing."  
Lance took a deep breath.  
"Guys. I kinda found the red paladin."  
He winced as several voices screeched in his ear.  
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?" That was Hunk. And Coran.  
"Wait wait wait what what what?" That was Pidge.  
"What?" Shiro, controlled as ever.  
"Really? Lance, that's marvellous! How did you find them?" And Allura.  
"He's...well...he's a Galra."  
Dead silence.  
"He tried to capture me, but I disarmed him and he offered to help me steal the red lion. Said something about Earth."  
More silence.  
"Guys?"  
"I...Lance? Just get to the castle. We'll figure out what happens next." Shiro again, nice and diplomatic.  
"Roger."


	2. How many titles would a title drop drop if a title drop could drop titles?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this has been a long time coming and I'm not 100% happy with it, but it's been staring at me and I can't take it anymore, so here y'all go

When they got back, all the other lion bays were full. That was good, it meant there would be no awkward wait for others to return. 

It also meant there was no reason to wait awkwardly outside the room with Keith. 

Lance couldn't help it. He was nervous. Stupidly nervous. He wasn't the one about to meet a group of people who had been fighting his species with all they had. But Keith didn't seem nervous. So Lance was feeling nervous for him. Which made no sense but, as Pidge was so fond of saying, the day Lance started making sense was the day pigs flew (though Lance maintained that, given what they've seen so far, there probably were pigs flying somewhere) So there they were. Standing outside the door. Awkwardly. Lance exhaled and, before he could completely panic, reached out and slammed the button to open the door. And there they were. 

Voltron.

They looked somewhat startled. Keith heard Lance take in a breath sharply, but then he was stepping forwards and turning to face Keith -in one fluid movement, how the hell was he doing that? Keith was frozen- and then Lance was talking. And gesturing to the people in the room.  
"This is Pidge, the green paladin, Hunk, the yellow paladin, Shiro, the black paladin, Allura, the Altean Princess, and last but not least, Coran, the Royal Advisor."  
Keith blinked once and then Lance had spun again and was gesturing at Keith.  
"And this is Keith. The red paladin."  
Keith was suddenly aware of the stares of the members of Voltron. A wave of fear instantly rose in him before the moustached altean, Coran, spoke, pulling him back to reality.  
"Well, welcome to the team Keith! It's good to finally have you here!"  
Keith took a slightly deep breath and a moment to look at the existing paladins. None of them looked openly hostile. Thankfully. Keith managed a small smile towards Coran before saying his first words to the actual, real, in the flesh Voltron:  
"Thank you, I hope I can live up to your expectations...I probably don't hate the Galran Empire as much as you all do but...I don't like it either."  
That didn't seem too bad. They still didn't look openly hostile, so it couldn't have been the worst thing to say. He hopes.

Lance is screaming internally. As the blue paladin, he's supposed to hold this team together, to keep the wheels of this machine turning, but how the quiznack is he meant to do that in this scenario? Well, he can think of one way, avoid avoid avoid.  
"Well today's been an adventure for all of us, we've launched a major attack on the Galra, found the red paladin, and Keith's left his home. How about. We all go to bed and deal with this in the morning? My mum always said that's there's nothing like a good night's sleep to get you to chill out. I mean she was talking about like, exam stress, but I think the concept can still-"  
Allura cut him off gently:  
"That's an excellent idea Lance. Let's reconvene in the morning. Goodnight everyone."  
~~~~~~  
Keith woke up early. That's the thing about coming from a hyper-militarised society. There is a routine and you stick to it. If that happens to involve getting up at the equivalent of 5:00am, then looks like you're getting up at the equivalent of 5:00am for the foreseeable future. So Keith wakes up at the equivalent of 5:00am in a strange room on a strange castle-shaped spaceship with a bunch of strangers who may-or-may-not want him there, and presumably none of them are even awake because (did I mention) it's the equivalent of 5:00am.  
So Keith leaves the room and tries to remember the directions to the dining room he was given last night. He does make it, but at one point he ended up in the lion hangars, so he's not entirely confident in his navigational skills. But he gets there without much of an incident and is just trying to figure out how to extract food from what appears to be a hose, when one of the paladins walks in. Keith turns, startled, and does not relax as he frantically tries to remember the names of each paladin. He turns again as the paladin moves over to the bowls and then to the hose.  
"Good morning, Hunk."  
The paladin seems surprised by the sudden, unfamiliar, voice but quickly turns with an apologetic smile on his face.  
"Ah, morning Keith. Sorry, didn't see you there."  
Despite himself, Keith finds himself smiling. Hunk just exudes sincerity and seems so welcoming. It's not like he's used to this kind of welcome. Let alone from a near-complete stranger.  
Hunk has somehow extracted a form of food goo from the hose. Keith stares. Hunk notices.  
"Uh, you ok?"  
Keith blinks.  
"Sorry, yes. Just..."  
Hunk quirks an eyebrow.  
"Can you tell me how to use the hose things?" The words run together slightly, but Hunk's face brightens anyway.  
"Of course mate," and if Keith's heart skips a beat at the term of endearment from this near-complete stranger he doesn't show it, "just grab a bowl, point the hose at it, and squeeze."  
Keith does so. And nothing happens. He squeezes just a tiny tiny bit harder and suddenly there is food goo everywhere. He blinks. And then blinks again before habitual fear can reach his eyes, and in the second while his eyes are closed, Hunk bursts into laughter. Keith is confused by this reaction. And he says so:  
"Why are you laughing?"  
This only serves to make Hunk laugh harder, but he does eventually manage to stop and speak.  
"Just the look on your face! You looked so shocked! And there's food goo everywhere holy quiznack, it's just. Funny."  
Keith doesn't quite know how to feel. One of the people who he is going to be -oh god- stuck with for the foreseeable future just laughed at him. Hard. But on the other hand, he got food goo everywhere and has not been thoroughly yelled at. So he smiles just a tiny, cautious bit; and when Hunk helps him to clean up the mess, he allows himself to laugh when Hunk flicks a bit of food goo at his face. When Hunk offers to pour his bowl for him, there's no trace of mockery in his voice, so Keith accepts the offer with gratitude (but he watches Hunk's movements very carefully, partially to memorise the movements, but partially in case it's some sort of trap)

By the time Allura and Coran enter, (only half an hour later) Hunk has managed to lure Keith into something resembling a normal conversation about Keith's first impressions of the group and the castle. Allura greets Keith awkwardly, and he responds in kind. He knows that his kind have not exactly been pleasant to hers, to put it lightly, and he knows that she is perfectly justified in at least a bit of mistrust. But Coran helpfully guides the conversation towards the routines of the other paladins. As if on cue, Shiro enters the room, a flash of panic present in his eyes as he spots Keith, but he quickly relaxes. Pidge enters a few minutes later and then, after a long stretch of time, Lance enters, resplendent in a blue dressing gown. When he sees what's on the plates in front of everybody, he pulls a face of mock-horror and collapses dramatically onto Hunk.  
"Hunk, sweetheart, darling angel, please tell me that you did not feed Keith food goo for his first meal here," he says, ignoring the way Hunk rolls his eyes.  
"Lance, you know it's difficult for me to get good ingredients here."  
"But is this not a special occasion? We, and by we I mean I, found the red paladin! Can we not celebrate?"  
Hunk rolls his eyes again, but smiles at Lance. "Fine, I'll cook later, does this please your highness?"  
Keith is confused by the term of address, he wasn't aware that Lance was royalty, but he sees Hunk and Lance's faces and he realizes it's merely playful mockery. It's a little weird for Keith. He's never seen any of his colleagues acting anything like this. The only thing he's seen remotely resembling this is when prisoners refuse to be separated, and, really, that's not a great frame of reference. Keith ends up shuddering at the memory.  
Of course, no one else knows why he shuddered so they all just quietly assume he has some sort of hang-up about affection, which honestly isn't too far from the truth.  
So Lance and Hunk look at each other and silently agree to tone it down a little bit.  
An uncomfortable silence descends on the room for a moment, but Coran breaks it:  
"So hey, we were gonna deal with the whole new-paladin situation which isn't really too much of a big deal, it's certainly not the first time a paladin or two have become paladins later than the others, interestingly it's usually the red paladin, the red lion has always been the most picky about her paladin. Reminds me of that time when we had to hold a big meeting to find the red paladin because the lion-" Allura cut him off.  
"Yes, thank you Coran-" she turned to face Keith "-Keith. This may be a difficult change for you, but believe me-believe us- when we tell you that we need you for us to be able to succeed. I know that, personally, it will be difficult for me, but I also know that I can't blame all of the Galra's actions on you."  
"Your Highness, I've seen firsthand so many of the Galra's atrocities. Believe me when I say that I will be 100% devoted to your cause. Also, do not worry about insulting me or anything with your discomfort. Though I may know that I won't harm you, you have no way of doing any sort of background check on me or anything and even if you did, it probably would not comfort you. I understand that the Galra have done unspeakable things to your people, your friends, your family, and I wouldn't blame you for feeling at least somewhat resentful towards me because of it." By the time he finishes speaking, Keith is speaking to the group as a whole and, although he hesitates sometimes, his words still come out edged with steel.  
Shiro steps forwards when it becomes apparent than no one else is willing to.  
"Keith, we will do our best to make you comfortable here, the red lion must have chosen you for a reason. Princess, I think we should do some training exercises with Keith."  
Pidge groans "Those didn't do anything though!"  
But Hunk says "Yeah, but we didn't have Keith with us back then, it might make a difference if we're all there."  
With a chorus of nods, Allura picks one of the trust exercises and herds everyone off to the training room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I'm not happy with that end either and Keith still needs to get his bayard and shit so that's gonna be fun.  
> I'm not gonna say "next chapter in a couple of weeks" because well look how well that went last time, but next chapter should be out by the end of the year.  
> You know how it is. School and identity crisis and ugh.  
> T xx


	3. The Bonding Montage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha I did say before the end of the year.

The first exercise is simple: the paladins will use their Bayards (Keith’s turns out to be a sword and, though he grimaces, he can’t change it) to defend each other from a robot onslaught. Of course this is nowhere near as simple as it sounds.   
The first attempt quickly has Keith out almost instantly as he lunges too far from the others and is instantly taken out by a robot he hadn’t noticed. With a hole in their circle, the others quickly fall. The next attempt goes about as well. And the third. And the fourth. And the fifth. And the sixth. But then something clicks and the five start to seem almost like an actual team that can hold their own. Eventually the paladins are lying on the floor, sipping what lance insists on referring to as “space capri suns” whatever those are, and feeling a little like this might actually work.   
The next few weeks are…a little awkward. Allura and Shiro are starting to warm up to Keith, but he can still see that momentary flash of fear when they see the Galra out of the corner of their eye. Coran seems a little over-the-top in his cheerfulness, and Keith swears he can sometimes see what looks like regret in the old advisor’s eyes when he thinks Keith isn’t looking. Lance and Hunk are wonderfully quick to accept Keith into the group, dragging him into their occasional late-night baking sessions, an action Keith doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to thank them enough for. And, last but not least, Pidge continues to be slightly awkward around him; however he’s pretty sure he’s on his way to actual friendship with her because one time she passed out on a couch he was sitting on and used him as a teddy bear, and he hasn’t commented on it.   
So all in all, it’s going pretty well and rigorous training exercises mean that they’re starting to act as a proper team.  
Which means they have to actually get back to proper missions.  
Such as hijacking a Galra prison vessel.  
It should be simple: Lance, Hunk, and Shiro will act as a distraction while Keith and Pidge sneak in to the control room and open the prisoners’ cells. Then the plan gets a little hazy, but really, how much trouble could a bunch of under-fed, over-worked prisoners be?  
A lot, it turns out.  
For a start, their mere presence on the ship means that the paladins can’t just blast a hole in the side of the ship as a distraction, which in turn means that less of the Galra crew end up dealing with the distraction. It doesn’t help that the moment Keith’s hand touches a scanner a new alarm starts blaring. Though Pidge gets the door open and they manage to lock themselves inside the control room, there are more guards than is comfortable out in the hallway just waiting for the pair to exit. And they seem to be working on getting the doors open. Keith takes a deep breath.  
“Pidge, open the door and then close it after me. I’ll buy you some time to do your hacking thing.” He walks to the door, Bayard out, and although Pidge worries her lip between her teeth, she does as he asked.  
Keith doesn’t have time to be thankful that none of the guards got through the door before the closest ones are attacking him. Keith slashes and stabs and blocks with half-surprising enthusiasm. His fellow officers would have been surprised, but they’re the ones who whispered bastard when his back was turned. These guards aren’t the ones who taunted him as a child, and they aren’t the ones who offered him friendship like it was bait for a trap. But they’re close enough, and Keith has many years of hatred to unleash. Needless to say, as someone who is both filled with rage and genuinely better-trained, he manages to hold his own against the group.  
As soon as Hunk enters the ship, he’s concerned by how few guards are in the corridor. Sure, him and the others took care of a bunch of them, but there should be more of them. But then the prisoners’ doors are opening and he has to quickly explain that he’s from Voltron and he’s here to help. It helps that Lance and Shiro are there to back up his claim. Gradually they make their way through the ship, directing prisoners and taking out the occasional stray guard. So he wrestles with unease for a while before deciding to just bite the bullet and addresses Keith and Pidge:  
“Hey guys, is everything ok on your end?”  
There is a moment of silence where every awful thing that could have happened flashes through Hunk’s mind before Pidge comes in with:  
“Uh there were…some guards that came to us but Keith wants to stress that it was totally under control.”  
Lance stops mid stride. “Keith, that isn’t very comforting.”  
“Yeah,” Hunk interjects, “That makes me feel like there were a lot there.”  
“It was fine, I was fine.”  
Another moment passes where no one quite knows how to respond until Hunk breaks it with:  
“Sorry, for a second there I thought you said ‘I’ as in, you took on a bunch of galra soldiers by yourself, but that can’t have been right because that would have been a stupidly reckless decision, even for someone who abandoned his entire lifestyle on a whim.”  
“…”  
“We can talk about this late, but may I remind you all that we are in the middle of a mission.” Shiro interjects before the paladins can get too distracted.   
The trio gradually makes their way through the corridors, guiding prisoners and praying that there aren’t any more unaccounted-for guards. Eventually they make it to the control room and their eyes widen at the number of guard bodies littered in the corridor. They’re very lucky Keith is on their side.   
Through a lot of muddled arguments and random walking, the five end up swapping Shiro and Keith they can clear the last two corridors at the same time. It doesn’t make much sense strategically, but the plot decrees it, so they do it. Keith, Lance, and Hunk’s corridor is ominously empty. It doesn’t have many cells, and the ones it does have are empty, so hopefully the ex-prisoners are with the others. The trio turn the corner.  
They are not.  
Instead, the prisoners are trapped with a circle of blasters pointed at them by the missing guards. Many of which immediately swivel to point at the trio. There is a moment when no one is moving. It doesn’t last long.   
Within seconds, the corridor is filled with shots of various colours and Keith has mostly closed the gap between himself and the guards. He quickly engages, knocking a blaster (and hand) from the nearest guard with his sword and spinning into the next one in a single movement. He uses this momentum to swing around between the guards and the prisoners. This turns out to be a mistake as one of the more together prisoners has grabbed a knife (likely from one of the dead guards) and was aiming for the guard that was exactly where Keith now is. Shit. Thinks Keith as he falls over. He doesn’t register much over the pain, but he does notice the silence as the last guards fall, and he has enough thought left to remember that Galra blades tend to be at least lightly poisoned. He blacks out before Hunk and Lance make it to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok this is way too short for how long it took to write.  
> This is because A) halfway through my files got lost so I had to rewrite half the chapter before I could think about continuing, but more importantly B) I kind of hate writing this. Three of the characters (Shiro, Allura, and Coran) I find very difficult to write, and writing this is far more of a chore than I'd like. I am a Fantasy writer, not a Sci-fi writer, and that is painfully obvious. I really cannot write battle scenes, as evidenced in the above chapter but I kind of need them for my goddamn plot to work.   
> I don't know if I'll be writing a chapter four. I have many other WIPs that I enjoy vastly more (if I end up putting any of them on ao3, my genre preference will be painfully obvious)  
> so, to the people who have bookmarked this fic, given me kudos, commented, enjoyed this fic, I'm very sorry. Please don't hate me for not wanting to give you writing I'm not happy with.

**Author's Note:**

> And there we go, chapter one!  
> Kudos and comment insanely appreciated.  
> And tell me if you guys would be up for some (nice, healthy, 90% angst-free) primary paladin polyamory, because although I love the ship, I've never written polyamory before and I don't want to write it badly.  
> I hope for the following chapters to be a chunk longer.  
> Until next time!  
> T xx


End file.
